We don’t need lessons from Chidambaram: Geelani

Srinagar: Stating that Kashmiris know the importance and benefits of education, Chairman Hurriyat Conference (G), Syed Ali Shah Geelani Tuesday said that people don’t need lessons from Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram.
“In view of the relentless pro-freedom protests over the past three months, the Indian government and its biased media are trying to portray the ongoing agitation as “a crusade against education,” the veteran leader said in a statement here.
The octogenarian leader said it was ironic that those responsible for the “murder of our children are giving us lessons on the future of our children.”
He said the Kashmiri students had excelled in education and would continue to do so besides raising their voice against the “Indian occupation”.
He said Kashmiris were wise enough to judge between good and bad, and being a civilized nation, “they don’t need lessons from Indian Home Minister Chidambaram or anybody else on the importance of education.”
“The fact is that despite labeling it as sectarian, communal and Pakistan sponsored agitation, the ongoing freedom movement is generating a widespread support among the international community and amongst a growing section of Indian people. This is giving India sleepless nights and now New Delhi and the biased Indian media is trying to project our genuine freedom struggle as a movement against education and knowledge,” Geelani said . He said during the pre-Eidul-Fitr protest calendar students were able to attend schools and colleges on days exempted from the purview of strikes. “However, the government itself created hurdles in students’ education when it locked the students along with the entire population in their homes by imposing a relentless stringent curfew,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Hurriyat leader has urged people to conduct marriages with austerity and not to spend lavishly on ceremonies as “it goes against Islamic and moral teachings.”